Broccoli Kitten LOVES Broccoli!

Broccoli Kitten LOVES Broccoli!

Victory for the Republic Workers

We want to celebrate the Republic Windows and Doors workers' victory of preventing the bosses and bankers from stealing their hard earned vacation, severance, and insurance pay. However, our Saturday protest is still on. First we want to raise awareness of what just happened -- a successful factory occupation, here stateside in 2008. Also, while Bank of America is trying to sound magnanimous about making these loans, these workers might still have jobs if the bank loaned when the company was still operating. Bank of America's David Rudis remarked the bank had "no obligation to pay Republic's employees." Frankly we the workers, read taxpayers, were under no obligation for the $25 Billion recently handed over to his bank.

This struggle is a microcosm of all our struggles, and is praxis of some major points. First, it highlights the power of workers, and our ability to face down the bosses using our most powerful weapon, the strike. Second, the working class struggle is one and the same as the immigrant rights struggle. Not only were a good portion of the UE workers at Republic immigrants of Latino descent, but this is one of several recent immigrant workers' fight back actions in Illinois including Cygnus Corp. Lastly, it shows the degree of militancy and organization it will take to gain victories in both the current economy and political atmosphere.

A list of related Republic Windows and Doors articles

Victory for the Republic Workers

Paul Krugman Schools George Will On The Great Depression

I think people are misunderstanding Krugman on the effect of the war. He isn't repeating the reactionary dribble that the war saved the economy, but stating the economy recovered. What he doesn't discuss here is important. The only way to prevent the "tendency of the rate of profit to fall" is to destroy capital (mostly means of production in this case). When WWII is considered in a context of every competing country's (allies and opponents), means of production was essentially wiped out, we have the real reason for the United States' economic recovery after the war. The right wing can never admit this since there are too many ideological penalties the come with it. If war really was a easy way to fix economies, why the slumps after Viet Nam, Gulf War I, the current occupations?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Paul Krugman Schools George Will On The Great Depression

Paul Krugman Schools George Will On The Great Depression

Austrian school economics, brought to you by the same kooks that deify Ayn Rand, and actually think there is a way for markets to expand infinitely. For those unfamiliar with this discredited school of economics, they actually do consider Greenspan and Friedman as being left, since anything that hints of regulating the monstrosities of capital is considered left of Austrian School. Free markets always have and always will fail miserably, the contradictions inherent in the profit system insure this, and history has proven it time and time again.

A little hint for acudoc, you've misidentified the so called producers in your pro ruling class diatribe, and it sure isn't the greedy captains of industry you worship. There are producers in society, and they do create all the wealth. They are called the workers.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Paul Krugman Schools George Will On The Great Depression

"The Secular Case Against Gay Marriage," or the Capitalist Case?

The MIT article exposes itself all the more when you consider the doctorate the author is working on. His thesis is quite simple and rehashes what the revolutionary left has said for over a century, albeit from the vantage of the oppressors.

Capital always needs exploitable labor, but doesn't want to pay for its reproduction. It uses the state (formed for capitals' common interests) to subsidize the cost of reproducing the next generation of labor. LGBT people, according to Kolasinski, supposedly aren't contributing to the labor pool, and hence shouldn't be "subsidized." Never mind that in the regressive tax structure we live under such subsidies actually come out of our pockets anyway, his argument is surprisingly honest in terms of how their class views ours: work, breed, work...

Kolasinski then takes out insurance at the end of his piece with oft repeated, "if we let them marry, then what's next?" A reactionary straw-man that frequently devolves into discussions of bestiality and what have you.

As a straight, married, Californian, I will be standing alongside my LGBT sisters and brothers on Saturday. An injury to one is an injury to all!

"The Secular Case Against Gay Marriage," or the Capitalist Case?

I profoundly admire Apple for taking a stand against Prop 8 (Prop Hate)

From their website, posted on October 24, 2008 at 10:18 (http://www.apple.com/startpage/):

No on Prop 8
Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.

I profoundly admire Apple for taking a stand against Prop 8 (Prop Hate)

Blaming the victims of the crisis

Recently I was arguing the same point this article makes with some petty bourgeois acquaintances, one a hopeless reactionary, the other a closet libertarian. They were making Wall Street's case that the entire financial crises is due to the government forcing innocent institutions like Countrywide to lend to brown (read Latino) and black people. I said "even if they did, and loans were made to every single black and brown person in the country, that still only accounts for roughly 20% of the loans. How do you account for the other 80%?" They were unable to answer it, and just reiterated the right wing 'talking points.'

Blaming the victims of the crisis

Palin: the View from British Columbia

Palin: the View from British Columbia

Hands down the best prose on SW this year

Brian Jones is a genius, witness:

I'm not sure which is more frightening, though: watching McCain and Palin whip a crowd into a patriotic, anti-Obama frenzy with racist code words, or watching McCain try to backpedal when audience members drop the code and speak in plain language?

Hands down the best prose on SW this year

Called the Congressperson!

I have very little faith in bourgeois representative democracy, but there are times when you can get a little bit of input. While we all know struggle is far more important than voting, the looming danger of HR 3997, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was worth the quick phone call to voice my opposition. Representative Xavier Becerra, had the good sense (or at least political acumen) to vote against the first version of the bill. I called his office today to thank him for that and to strongly state my opposition to the Senate revisions. Lets hope the House rejects the "Bankster Bailout" again. While Bush and all the other ruling class representatives are trying so hard to convince us we are all in the same boat, we always need to remember -- "the working class and the employing class have nothing in common."

Called the Congressperson!

Care to try again, Dick?

"The fact is, the markets work, and they are working," said Cheney in an interview in his White House office. "And people - some of the big companies obviously - have taken risks. Risk means risk. And there's an upside as well as a downside in some of the choices they've made. We have to be careful not to have this set of developments lead us to significantly expand the role of government in ways that may do damage long-term for the economy."

The same goes for Democratic efforts to curb the predatory lending practices that left naive homeowners in trouble, says Cheney: "We don't want to interfere with the basic, fundamental working of the markets."

Your markets are working alright! Thanks Dick, for making our case for socialism even more compelling and easier to win people over to. While the real solution to the crisis is a socialist revolution, here are some stopgap reforms to carry us through the year.

• Use the newly nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to refinance all troubled mortgage holders with 30 year fixed rate notes on a fair and realistic valuation of their homes, not the over-inflated housing bubble prices. Let the investment banking industry take the losses on all refinanced price differences.


• Institute an immediate and progressive wealth tax with severe penalties for capital flight.


• Institute a immediate windfall tax for record profit making petroleum corporations, in fact, let's extend that to all the non-bid contract war profiteers as well.


• Repeal the Bush tax cuts for the obscenely rich, create a much more progressive tax structure, and remove all tax loopholes and subsidies for corporations.


• End the brutal occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq (with half of that 2.1B a week being used for reparations).


• National single payer healthcare.


• Take the 700B and rebuild inner cities, create a national public transportation system, and invest the rest in public research and development of alternative energy sources.

Care to try again, Dick?

Black September article compilation

Black September article compilation

Worst Crisis Since '30s, With No End Yet in Sight

The folks at the Wall Street Journal Online finally being honest about the inherent failure of free markets? Important how they don't mention the contradiction of privatization of profit, but socialization of losses, but it is the WSJ after all. A glimpse of how they view us:

...to the discomfort of workers -- companies are quicker to adjust wages, hiring and work hours when the economy softens.

In other words, the working class always bears the burden--during boom or slump. Our task is to organize against them placing this on us! Times like this expose their proffered excuse for sucking surplus value out of us, "because we [the capitalists] take all the risks," for the lie it always is.

Worst Crisis Since '30s, With No End Yet in Sight

Crisis in Capitalism (a redundant phrase, really)

When I gave my sub-prime mortgage crisis talk in 2007, skeptics were saying it was no big deal. "The economy will rebound," "deregulation is always a good thing," trust the market," etc. Armed with Marxist analysis of economics and recognition of the fundamental principles of a crisis of overproduction, allowed us to see the sub-prime mess was just a precursor of a much larger catastrophe. A good time to re-read Rosa Luxemburg, to understand how credit eventually exacerbates crisis. This is playing out exactly the way she explains in "Reform of Revolution."

The bi-partisan neoliberal project is now bearing fruit. While the Bush gang certainly helped to accelerate this with their murderous 2.1 billion dollar a week occupations, the chicken were going to come home to roost eventually. It is going to take serious struggle on the ground to keep this entire thing from being placed on our backs.

A system out of control
Crucial analysis of the scope of the crisis, and addresses how there isn't any quick fix using their usual tools. This article is a must read!

Working harder and falling behind
The ruling class wants someone to pay to get them out of their latest crisis. Guess who they want that to be?

US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling from Direct Hits
When fiscal conservatives like Paul Craig Roberts agree with us on deregulation being a prime cause, you know the system is in crises.

Crisis in Capitalism (a redundant phrase, really)

Road Game Melee

Sparks' Candace Parker at center of late scuffle
Parker Ejected in Sparks Brawl

Road Game Melee

Now hidden, now open

Looks like more and more people are beginning to see through the lies this system is based on.

How bad will it get?
Well, at least the billionaires and hedge fund managers made money. Now, we working class people will face the pain from their extravagance and excess. Their free market correction consists of them taking the money and running, while workers suffer the attendant consequences.

Americans may be losing faith in free markets
When the cognitive dissonance between the ruling class propaganda and people's actual experience becomes too great, they begin questioning the false premises this society is based on. The only thing free markets have done, ever, is make the rich all the more richer. The best part is the end of the article where reformism is hinted at.

Why the Bail Out of Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae is Bad Economic Policy

The Wall Street Journal seems closer to reason than the Democratic Congress. Over the weekend its editorial clarified what socialists since Marx have been saying: "What taxpayers need to understand is that Fannie and Freddie already practice socialism, albeit of the dishonest kind. Their profit is privatized but their risk is socialized."

Capitalism's very foundation is the socialization of labor, risk, whatever, and the privatization of profit. The parasites (capitalists) are usually good at obfuscating this, but when the inevitable crisis inherent in the system exposes them, the fact of exploitation is revealed to all.

Now hidden, now open

Quick Thoughts on Furman's 'Wal-Mart: A Progressive Success Story'

Just read Jason Furman's laughable paper on Wall-Mart "Wal-Mart: A Progressive Success Story." Early on he writes "A Harvard applicant has a higher chance of being accepted than a person applying for a job at that Wal-Mart," as anecdotal support as to why he feels Wall-Mart jobs are great "opportunities." Talk about strained analogies!

In sections where he cites studies on Wall-Mart's economic impacts, Furman liberally quotes findings supporting his conclusions, but immediately cites inconclusiveness whenever the studies differ from his thesis.

Later, when discussing rates of exploitation various companies have in comparison, he writes:

"If Microsoft paid each of its employees an additional $5,000 or expanded its health benefits, its profits would be largely unchanged. If Wal-Mart took the same step -- and did not pass the cost on to consumers -- it would be virtually wiped out."

This assumes the only option Wall-Mart would have was Furman's arbitrary choice of $5,000! A figure lower than that seems inconceivable to Furman, who earlier in the same section of his paper speaks of "Wal-Mart's mind-boggling $10 billion in profits." Somehow there is no room for wage increases or better benefits. Nope, it's an all or nothing proposition for neo-liberal proponents.

While the paper as a whole glosses over any information contrary to his conclusions, the best part is when he addresses Wal-Mart's notoriously rampant sexual discrimination and other lawbreaking:

"Finally, Wal-Mart should obey labor laws that bar gender discrimination, unpaid overtime and environmental laws like the Clean Air Act."

For free market champions like Furman, these are legal issues unrelated to economic questions entirely. Never-mind that gender based pay gaps and unpaid overtime are economic issues by their very nature.

Furman's rosy conclusion that Wal-Mart is in fact a progressive force in society is closely tied to his wholesale apologetics for Clinton era social welfare slashing. Throughout his piece Furman refers to the gutting of the social safety net under the Clinton presidency as "making work pay." What this odd phrasing really means is making workers pay. With Barack Obama's recent appointment of Jason Furman as top economic advisor, one worries what a possible Obama administration holds in store for workers.

Quick Thoughts on Furman's 'Wal-Mart: A Progressive Success Story'

Parker dunks in Sparks’ win over Fever

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Parker dunks in Sparks’ win over Fever

First the Slowdown, Then the Crash

First the Slowdown, Then the Crash

Rachel Ray faux Kuffiyeh flap

What repressive fashion measures will the jingoistic reactionary right wing media impose on us next? In addition to her ignorance, Michelle Malkin has once again proven her insanity, racism, and xenophobia know no bounds.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24860437/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/24864619#24864619

Rachel Ray faux Kuffiyeh flap